In general, when the user of a mobile communication terminal or a portable phone utilizes wireless Internet contents, fees for the usage are mainly classified into two types. The one is a contents usage fee and the other is a data communication fee. The former is the fee paid to a contents provider, and the latter is the fee paid to a mobile communication provider.
In this case, the contents usage fee is very clearly indicated. That is, it is clearly indicated that a specific fee will be charged or the contents usage fee is fire. However, the data communication fee depends on the situation. That is, the fee may differ considerably depending on the size of contents file. As a result, a user who perceived a small contents usage fee and then utilized contents without hesitation is charged a fee for a large amount of data communication because of the large size of the contents, which frequently gives rise to complaints. Recently, this is the biggest problem of which a user complains.
As described above, the term “free mobile contents” means that there is no contents usage fee, rather than that a communication fee required for data download or upload after access to the contents is not charged. Due to concern about the communication fee, the user of a terminal is somewhat reluctant to access mobile contents in practice. Conventionally, when a terminal utilizes mobile contents, data is transmitted and received on a packet basis, and, thereafter, the terminal is charged for this. That is, the terminal pays a related fee to a mobile communication provider based on the access and the total size of transmitted and received packets.
A mobile contents user is unwilling to use mobile contents because it is very difficult to estimate the data communication fee, which has been a big obstacle preventing the activation of the mobile Internet market. In order to provide contents related to mobile discount coupons, mobile advertisements, or mobile surveys, which will be provided to mobile terminals by contents providers at no charge in the future, it is important to exempt the terminal from a net communication fee to be paid.
Meanwhile, in the field of advertisement, marketing, or questionnaire survey (research) and the like, it is necessary to effectively deliver a large amount of information, thereby obtaining good responses with high efficiency. As a tool used to obtain such an effect, many tools have been proposed.
A conventional Short Message Service (SMS) is easily used by people at a low cost or at no charge, but short messages used in SMS deliver only text, thereby having disadvantages in that the contents thereof is simple and short. Therefore, it is difficult to expect high efficiency in the delivery of information.
Furthermore, a conventional contents push method is a method in which a contents provider transmits contents to a terminal in a push manner. The method previously transmits a predetermined large amount of contents, so that the contents is abundant, and a communication fee is low considering the amount of data if communication is performed within a discount rate time zone. However, there are disadvantages in that large memory is required, an excessive communication fee is charged when there are many recipients, and it is difficult to compare and correct the stored contents with the current contents, thereby resulting in the up-to-date contents not being used if there is a difference between contents downloaded and stored in the terminal and contents currently possessed by a contents provider.
Furthermore, of conventional arts, there is a technology in which a connection point, that is, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), is directly input into a terminal, and then contents is downloaded. This is performed as if a connection to the Internet were directly made and contents were used in a computer environment. Since the contents of a connection point is activated in a terminal, this technology has advantages in that the contents thereof is abundant, long and up-to-date, but there are problems in that a procedure of inputting the address of a connection point by a mobile terminal is complicated and inconvenient, and in that a communication fee is charged for the transmission and reception of the contents, so that terminal users are unwilling to utilize this.
Furthermore, among conventional arts, there is a technology in which, when a contents provider provides a certain contents to a terminal, a short message (Callback URL SMS) in which a hyperlink is included is first transmitted to the terminal, and, thereafter, the terminal connects to the contents through the hyperlink and downloads it. This is called ‘Call-Back Service’ and the message is called a ‘pay callback message’.
The callback message has advantages in that the contents of a connection point designated by the hyperlink is activated in the terminal, so that the contents is always abundant, long and up-to-date, and it is not necessary to directly input the connection point, thereby being convenient to use.
However, since the communication fees are charged for the transmission and reception of the contents, there is a problem in that the terminal owners are unwilling to utilize it.
Furthermore, in order for the contents provider to transmit a message including a hyperlink, the permission of the mobile terminal must be occasionally obtained through a mobile communication provider. The reason for this is to guard against spam messages indiscriminately transmitted to the terminal but, most of all, to obtain consent in advance because the terminal must pay a net communication fee along with a contents usage fee when the terminal connects to a corresponding URL address through such a pay callback message.
Currently, the biggest problem with free advertisements or a survey business on mobile terminals is related to the entity which handles the communication fees of a terminal. If a method of resolving the communication fee of the terminal is not provided, the mobile communication provider cannot permit the contents provider to freely transmit a callback message including hyperlink, or a short message which is only composed of text or a message comprising multimedia. This has the potential to become a big obstacle in the business development of contents providers, thereby hampering industrial development.